Bight or loop detaining implement for knitting-machines.



R. W. SCOTT.

BIGHT 0R LOOP DETAINING IMPLEMENT FOR KNITTING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 5. I916.

Patented May 2,4916.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT W. SCOTT, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO SCOTT & WILLIAMS, INCORPORATED, OF CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

BIG-HT OR LOOP DETAININ G IMPLEMENT FOR KNITTING-MACHINES.

Application filed 'February 5, 1916.

My invention relates to an implement ada ted to be used in connection with the nee les of a knitting machine for the purposes of receiving and detaining bights or loops of yarn and of delivering such a detained bight or loop to a needle or needles.

One object of my invention is to provide an instrument of this nature which shall be accurate and reliable and which shall be of a structure enabling it to detain and manipulate loops of as small a size as possible.

Other objects are to provide an instrument of this nature which may be employed in a carrier or dial similar to needle beds or dials familiar to knitting artisans, and which will retain its adjusted position in such a carrier, as well as to provide an instrument for the above and other purposes adapted to be readily and accurately manufactured at a low cost, and of standard dimensions and other qualities, whereby to secure uniform operative and wearing qualities among many instruments.

In my prior Letters Patent No. 846,430 and No. 846,431, dated March 5, 1907; No. 865,660, dated September 10, 1907; No. 881,495, dated March 10, 1908; No. 919,962, dated April 27, 1909; No. 929,502, dated July 27, 1909; No. 932,336, dated August 24, 1909; and No. 981,318, dated January lO, 1911 I have explained various constructions of and uses for instruments of the general class herein improved in connection with transferring loops from or to needles during the operation of a knitting machine, while in my Letters Patent No. 410,858, September 10, 1889; No.-846,353, dated March 5, 1907; No. 834,763, dated October 30, 1906; and No. 864,433, dated August 27, 1907 I have explained the employment of knitting needles for taking loops from the forming fabric and replacing them, for various fully described uses, on the needles at a subsequent time in the operation.

One purpose of my present invention is to simplify the instruments of the genus disclosed in the first group of patents above Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 2, 1916.

Serial N 0. 76,455.

formance of the function of the needles in the second mentioned group of patents above, and other functions.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of the left-hand member of a symmetrical pair of instruments adapted to be used together to form virtually one operative implement; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the instrument shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a plan view of a segment of a dial or carrier, of a pair of such instruments, and of a knitting needle; Fig. 4 is a plan view of a pair of the instruments placed together in their intended relation to each other; and Fig. 5 is a plan view similar to Fig. 3, illustrating-a different position of the parts.

Instruments 1 are thin resilient metal devices, which may be made in any desired manner, but preferably are stamped from sheet steel of uniform thickness, the stamping having substantially the profile illustrated in Fig. 1 and including an integral operating butt 10, if desired, of any desired form or place upon the instrument.

Instruments of the kind 1 differ from instruments of the kind 2 (Figs. 3, 4 and 5) in that the instruments 1 are formed near one end with offset bends 3, 5 and 7 displaced to the left with respect to the plane of the body of the instrument, while the instruments 2 are formed with similar bends 3, 5 and 7 displaced to the right, so that when instrument 1 and instrument 2 are placed together face to face, a lozengeshaped opening 11, Fig. 4, is left inclosed between the respective bent portions. The upper and lower margins of the instruments 1 and 2 are preferably parallel, and the instruments may be of a Width between said margins to enable all of them to be housed as in a groove or saw kerf 12 in a carrier or bed 15, which may be of any desired form and construction, for instance, being a circular dial as shown in which the grooves 12 are radial grooves in an upstanding portion 16, as shown in Fig. 5.

The instruments 1 and 2 terminate in rounded blunt points 9, which points are defined by a rounded bevel or slope 4 at the outer lower corner of the instrument and by a notch 6 having a sloping and a substantially vertical face, so that the points 9 are relatively thin in vertical cross-section, and thinner at the point of their attachment to the instrument 1 than at a point near their extremity, as illustrated in Fig. 1. Notch 6 is preferably so related to the bends in the offset portions 3, 5 and 7 as to bring the vertical wall of the notch 6 at points substantially separated with respect to the included opening 11 formed by the two symmetrical implements.

The bent portion 3 is shorter than the bent portion 7, the angles with the portion 5 being substantially the same, while the point 9 is bent substantially as indicated at 8, so that the point 8 for the left-hand instrument is to the right of the plane of the inner face of that instrument, and so that the two points 9, when viewed in plan, Fig. 4, define between them a distinct but acute angle.

In use, an instrument 1 and an instrument 2 will be placed in the same groove 12 of the carrier 15, 16, in which position, when the implement formed by the pair of instruments takes a form illustrated in said figure, the offset position of the point 8 causes the instruments to spread with respect to each other. When the instruments are retracted with respect to the grooves 12, their resilience permits them to come together as illustrated in Fig. 5, the points 8 of the respec- -tive instruments rocking upon each other.

Qne result of this is to maintain a delicate and constant frictional contact of both instruments with the walls of the groove 12. Another result is to cause a slight spreading of the points 9, to thereby increase the angle as viewed in plan between the points 9 when the instruments are retracted and to cause the points 9 to be firmly held together at their points 8 to prevent accidental spreading thereof. A loop or bight taken on the pomts 9 will be positively held against being removed from said points even by considerable strains acting outwardly and lon gitudinally of said instruments so that a bight taken or held on said points may be Eqged away from the needles and securely The instruments 1 and 2 are so thin as to permit them readilyto yield to pass a knitting needle 20 projecting upwardly into the opening 11, as indicated in Fig. 3, but at other times the points 9 rest together and occupy laterally the least possible space. These operative qualities have the valuable functions of permitting a closed loop to be taken by or deposited upon the points 9, the notches 6 havingbeen placed by the advance of the instruments in line with the needles for this purpose, and of thereafter maintaining such a taken bight or loop with the least possible tendency to stretch and enlarge the same. For instance, referring to Fig. 5, a loop a may be held at the verge of the carrier 15 by instruments 1, 2, in the position shown in said figure, the upward slope of the bottoms of the notches 6 and the outward flare between the points 9 cooperling to maintain the loop in place on the implement 1, 2 against considerable strains acting outwardly with respect to the verge of the carrier 15.

It will further be observed that the form of the implement made up of the instrument 1, 2 is such as favorably to dispose "a loop a when the im lements are placed with respect to a needle in the position of Fig. 4, for the purpose of permitting the needle to penetrate the o ening 11, to enter the loop and to receive t e loop when the instruments 1, 2 are subsequently withdrawn to the position shown in Fig. 5, the instruments 1, 2 yielding when passing the needle 20, as shown in Fig. 3, for this purpose.

The rounded edges 4, when the instruments are used for detaining bights or loops of yarn during the knitting of subsequent fabric, have the function of riding over and holding down such subsequent fabric when the instruments 1, 2, are advanced to place the bights or loops held by them on the needles 20.

The instruments 1 and 2 ma be fastened together at or in the rear of t eir butts 10, as by soldering, brazing or spot-welding, but I prefer merely to place them together in the same groove 12.

What I claim is: o

1. A loopor bight-detaining implemen consisting of a body or shank comprising a laterally offset portion, and terminating in a laterally bent, upwardly sloping Point having portions lying on each side 0 the plane of a face of said implement.

2. A loop or bight-detaining implement consisting of a body or shank terminating in a point having a portion lying on one side of the plane of a face of said implement, and having an offset bend on the other side of said plane.

3. A loopor bight-detaining implement consisting of a body or shank terminating in a point bent to intersect in two directions the plane of a face of said implement, said implement having between said point and shank a laterally offset portion lying on on side of said plane.

4. A loopor bight-detaining implement consisting of a thin plane body or shank terminating in a point defined by an upwardly sloping bottom edge of saidimplement and by the upwardly slo ing bottom of a notch in the upper edge 0 said .body, said implement having a laterally offset bend including a portion of said point.

5. A knitting machine having two resilient loop detaining implements mutually tending to separate, in combination with a grooved carrier adapted to receive both said implements in the same groove.

6. The combination in a knitting machine of two symmetrical resilient loop-detaining implements having normally plane bodies, and points adapted to be brought into contact, whereby normally to separate the bodies of said implements.

7. A loop-detaining implement for knitting machines having in combination two members each characterized by a resilient shank and a point offset with respect to said shank and toward the other member, whereby said members tend to be resilient sepa- 10 rated, and are adapted to maintain riction with the Walls of a grooved carrier adapted to receive both members of said implement in the same groove.

Signed by me at Boston, Massachusetts, 15

this 31st day of January, 1916.

ROBERT W. SCOTT. 

